At 60, Bobby Mcferrin Finds His Music Just Flows Effortlessly

At 60, Bobby McFerrin finds his music just flows effortlessly - San Jose Mercury News 4/3/10 9:14 AM
sound design and formal composition. It's the

At 60, Bobby McFerrin antithesis, really, of the improvised solo events that
finds his music just flows are at the heart of McFerrin's art.
effortlessly "I'm used to hearing a piece only once," he says, by

phone from Toronto, where he had performed a
cappella the night before. "It's like a firefly or a
By Richard Scheinin butterfly that lives for 24 hours — or like those sand
rscheinin@mercurynews.com paintings that the Tibetan monks do. They create
this meticulously time-consuming thing, and then
Posted: 04/03/2010 12:00:00 AM PDT it's completely destroyed. That's what a solo concert
The music on vocalist Bobby McFerrin's new CD, is like."
"VOCAbuLarieS," is dream-world stuff. It floats and
spins, a choir of voices as a chiffon sound tapestry,
"VOCAbuLarieS," on the other hand, is an act of
blowing about, shimmering and shimmying —
artifice: One hears McFerrin's improvisational DNA
delicate and complex, beating like a heart, or pulsing through its seven lengthy tracks, but that's b
glowing like a jellyfish in the dark.
ecause there are some tricks involved. Elegant
tricks, intricate and beautiful, but, still — tricks.
The music has been meticulously sculpted in the
studio; exactly how McFerrin will re-create its The magician behind the curtain is Roger Treece, a
intricacies for live audiences is hard to say. Still, the
bass singer in McFerrin's 12-member vocal
one-time San Franciscan — he now lives in ensemble known as Voicestra. Also a composer and
Philadelphia — is taking it on tour, beginning
arranger, he was charged with poring through
Saturday at the Masonic Center in San Francisco, hundreds of hours of archival recordings of that
where he performs his new music with the voices of group and of McFerrin singing in other
the Berkeley-based Pacific Mozart Ensemble: "It is
circumstances.
difficult, but doable," he says, laughing. "Whatever's
written down on paper is going to be what we do."
Treece searched out the essential musical cells that
crop up in McFerrin's improvised performances: the
McFerrin, a 10-time Grammy winner, turned 60 in
recurring melodic threads, vocal gestures and
March, and "VOCAbuLarieS" encapsulates much of
inflections that are true "McFerrinisms." Gradually,
what he has been about through the years. It offers he embellished, varied and layered them, using
the spontaneity of jazz, the gloss of pop, the
them as building blocks for his own extended
extended compositional techniques of classical arrangements and compositions.
choral music. It oozes through R&B and samba
grooves, African chant and raga, as well as lyrics
sung in Latin, Sanskrit, Zulu, Spanish, Hebrew, He had help in the studio, including from R&B
Gaelic — even a language invented by McFerrin. singers Lisa Fischer and Bernard Fowler; Brazilian
jazz singer Luciana Souza; Janis Siegel of Manhattan
Transfer; the New York Voices; members of the
What's different here is that the music — years in
Voicestra — and McFerrin. "I'd just go in the studio
the making — is essentially an exercise in studio and improvise on a lot of things," he remembers.
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"And Roger would say, 'I'm looking for a new bass lifelong immersion in voice and song.
line in this section,' and he'd put 36 bars on a
loop." His own three children, all born in San Francisco,
have been similarly immersed: "I just did a concert
The album emerged from more than 1,000 hours of in Princeton, N.J., and my daughter" — Madison, age
studio time, with Treece editing and sculpting the 18 — "was in the audience. And I always ask for
finished performances from more than 1,400 vocal singers to come up and join me, and she flew down
tracks. and came up on stage with me. We did a Beatles
song together, 'I Want You (She's So Heavy).' The
"Meticulous work," McFerrin calls it. "It's one of the stage is like my second home. I'm very comfortable
reasons it took eight years to finish. Plus, the two of up there, and I can see that that's starting to happen
us are a couple of goofballs. We spent a lot of time for her, too."
laughing."
McFerrin notices his own evolution, as well.
The completed works "are going to demand serious
attention, in performance and in listening," he says. "I'm noticing that I'm singing softer and softer. My
"San Francisco is the first performance" — the show voice is getting quieter. I still have the four-octave
is presented by SFJazz, as part of its spring season range, but I'm finding that I don't have to push
— "and then we'll take it on tour, using a different anything out anymore. It just comes out on its own."
choir each time."
And he finds that his art has "gotten better over the
Don't be surprised if McFerrin finds a way to have years. In the beginning, improvisation was
the audience participate in the show. An completely frightening, and I would try to
experimenter, not a script follower, he follows his manipulate things. Now I just basically watch things
instincts and interests. He has scored pop hits (i.e. more as they develop.
"Don't Worry Be Happy," from 1988), conducted
major orchestras (San Francisco Symphony, London "I listen to old tapes of myself now, and I barely
Philharmonic) and collaborated with the likes of recognize myself," McFerrin continues. "Things
cellist Yo-Yo Ma, jazz pianist Chick Corea and sound a little bit more thought out, logical. And
comedian Robin Williams. now I allow myself to be messy; it's OK if my voice
cracks. I just let it be. I just kind of leave it alone
He knows how to have serious fun and, probably and wait for something else to happen.
because of that, his audience is "6 to 96, and all
colors, shapes and sizes," he says. "I think it's "I used to react too quickly. I would worry that the
because I do so many kinds of things. I don't just audience would think I was staying on one thing too
sing classical music all night, or I don't just sing long, and so I'd force it to another place."
jazz pieces."
McFerrin is rolling along now, in storytelling mode.
The son of singers Sara Cooper and Robert
McFerrin, a baritone with New York's Metropolitan
Opera, Bobby McFerrin has often spoken about his "You know, I was just in New York, and my friend
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Chick, Chick Corea, was playing with Roy Haynes,

the drummer, at the Blue Note. So I went and sat
during the sound check with Roy and the band, and
I was marveling at the ease with which Chick plays.
It's just astounding.
"And I was beginning to recognize something about

myself in that — I just turned 60 a few weeks ago,
and I'm getting to the point where there's just such a
casualness about everything. And that's a good way
to be.
"It's very relaxed, a very relaxed entry into music.

There's nothing disturbing. There are no troubled
waters. It's like a morning mist on a pond."
Contact Richard Scheinin at 408-920-5069.
Bobby McFerrin
Performing "VOCAbuLarieS"
With the Pacific Mozart Ensemble
When: 8 p.m. Saturday
Where: Nob Hill Masonic Center, 1111 California
St., San Francisco
Tickets: $25-$85; 866-920-5299, www.sfjazz.org
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At 60, Bobby McFerrin finds his music just flows effortlessly - San Jose Mercury News 4/3/10 9:14 AM

sound design and formal composition. It's the

effortlessly "I'm used to hearing a piece only once," he says, by

Chick, Chick Corea, was playing with Roy Haynes,

"And I was beginning to recognize something about

"It's very relaxed, a very relaxed entry into music.

Contact Richard Scheinin at 408-920-5069.

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